Heard in the Stands at the Indy

[boostedf22c]

Yes. "OUR" sport is in the trouble. Unless NHRA makes some changes they are in trouble too. I know a lot of you guys hate my car, or don't understand it, or don't even know what it is or what you are looking at. Probably should wait to call the young kids stupid if that's the case. I hear it all the time on here. Honestly you guys that think that are part of the problem.

I had no less than 100 people come up to me saying that they were really looking forward to watching my car make passes again this year at Indy. Old and young. Racers and tech officials. Felt horrible telling them that I couldn't because some bitter NHRA tech official that should've hung up his hat while I was still a child, decided to find some rule written in their rulebook that can't even be met by my car in a safe matter. If the head tech official can't even tell you what the make and model is of a certain car, he shouldn't be in that position.

It's really a bummer that 1 or 2 bad apples can ruin it for anyone. All the money (tons and tons to make it legal to run Comp), time, sweat, blood, tears that went into getting this car ready for this event was all just a giant waste. Sponsors get screwed, I get screwed, fans get screwed. But NHRA gets their money of course. What's even more crazy is, every person I talked too, primarily racers that have run with NHRA for a very long time, said "was XXX XXXXXX involved in this" I said yeah, and most of them said "he's no good" "he's an ***" etc. I never met the guy, however he wouldn't even look me in the eyes the entire time he was looking at my car so that say volumes for his character. He didn't say a word to me. Just rode off on his scooter and had someone else tell me I couldn't race.

Of course this was after the same "expletive" person told me to run my clutch can up to Lafayette to get it upgraded (thank you Browell for doing this for me at the drop of a hat) and re certified, my flywheel back to the manufacturer to get certified and the same with my clutch. So after 2 full days of meeting everything NHRA told me to do, running all over the state, emptying my pockets even more, they sent one their tech official over to me on race day to say "sorry you can't race because of this rule, in which he showed me in the rulebook" Appeared to be written with only domestic V8's in mind. It's a bummer that NHRA is like this, and they aren't going to get any new cars such as mine involved if they don't change something. I race both sides and I'll be honest, the last 2 years of racing NHRA has been exhausting just dealing them. They have an accepted fuel list that isn't inviting to any car such as mine, seems to be at least 10 years old. 90% of them aren't familiar with the cars or the technology. It's sad. There are a ton of NHRA tech guys and employees that are great people, and I look up to them, but man the couple of bad apples they have sure do spoil the bunch.

Sorry for the rant, but as I sit at home, with my car packed up and loaded in my trailer sitting in front of my house, I'm just sick to my stomach that what we worked for all year, was yanked away from us because 1 tech guy doesn't know or understand what he is looking at.

[1320racer]

I've been saying for years, drag racing is dying and for too many reasons to be able to save it.

[Chad Rhodes]

Originally Posted by 1320racer

I've been saying for years, drag racing is dying and for too many reasons to be able to save it.

No one listened to you then, and no one cares now

[boster]

Carey , welcome to Indy. Your not the first and won't be the last

[Chad Rhodes]

Carey, what exactly is the rule that they say your are not in compliance with?

[boostedf22c]

Originally Posted by Chad Rhodes

Carey, what exactly is the rule that they say your are not in compliance with?

It's the hole diameter in my adapter/mid plate. Their rules state that this hole can only be 1 inch in diameter bigger than the crank flange diameter where the flywheel bolts too.

That is super easy to do with your domestic V8 car as that flange sticks through the adapter plate and mounting flange of the block. Mine is recessed inside of the mounting flange of the block and inside of the adapter plate. So that hole HAS to be bigger to accommodate the radius on the back of the flywheel so we can safely bolt our flywheel to the engine. Their solution is to run a hub adapter or some weird sort of spacer to get the crank mounting flange past the adapter plate to where we can bolt the flywheel to. Anyone with any experience with a buzzy inline 4 cylinder car knows that it's hard keeping any bolt in that engine, let alone a flywheel bolt. So in their "fix" I would have to run really long flywheel bolts and some sort of spacer. That too me seems way more dangerous than a larger hole in the adapter plate that goes no where except into the back of the block. And honestly it's extremely close to the radius of the flywheel so in the end the hole in the adapter plate, once the flywheel is bolted up is actually non existent.

[Chad Rhodes]

Originally Posted by boostedf22c

It's the hole diameter in my adapter/mid plate. Their rules state that this hole can only be 1 inch in diameter bigger than the crank flange diameter where the flywheel bolts too.

That is super easy to do with your domestic V8 car as that flange sticks through the adapter plate and mounting flange of the block. Mine is recessed inside of the mounting flange of the block and inside of the adapter plate. So that hole HAS to be bigger to accommodate the radius on the back of the flywheel so we can safely bolt our flywheel to the engine. Their solution is to run a hub adapter or some weird sort of spacer to get the crank mounting flange past the adapter plate to where we can bolt the flywheel to. Anyone with any experience with a buzzy inline 4 cylinder car knows that it's hard keeping any bolt in that engine, let alone a flywheel bolt. So in their "fix" I would have to run really long flywheel bolts and some sort of spacer. That too me seems way more dangerous than a larger hole in the adapter plate that goes no where except into the back of the block. And honestly it's extremely close to the radius of the flywheel so in the end the hole in the adapter plate, once the flywheel is bolted up is actually non existent.

Wow. I understand the rule as written, and you're right. It was never written with modern import engines in mind, and is probably decades old. I think a few calls to Glendora, and talking to Pat or some of the others might make you some headway. I think a better solution than a spacer would be to have the crank made a little longer to move it back, if NHRA won't bend on the rule. I hate you had that happen, your car is really cool.

[Dick Butler]

Guys got to realize that keeping the tech men up on 1million combinations in Stk and SS cannot be done and should not be expected. Keeping the combinations "simple and limited " can be an answer but no one will listen to that one. Everyone fears lack of innovation, lack of their own car, lack of their own brand.........lack of racing the combo they currently own..and understand.
Everyone rather sacrifice the whole sport while continuing to play the same games year after year. Run what they allow today and "Bi####" about cost, tech, rules etc. Complain about no sponsors, no crowd, no heads up racing....
A clean start class with spec , sealed motors could recover the crowd, cut the cost, increase the interest of sponsors and NHRA but I doubt support could be found anywhere
It cannot be done by one man, one group or brand. (MOPAR shoot out is the exception or example of supporting a concept. Not everyone can afford a 200,000 program.
Allow any body you have at a fixed wt and cubic inchs spec or sealed motor and at least
people could test the water with their current car and a cheaper motor combo to see if it works.

[aspen7709]

Hey Carey, Why not stud the crank hub? Use long studs, slide the spacer then the wheel on. Im sure ARP would make them to any spec you need. It would be just like the clutch set up in top fuel cars then....Studs give more clamping force and are "safer" right and you spend more money right? Good luck in your fight!

Kenny Newsome 7709 ?/SA

[Jeff Lee]

I'm trying to figure out how or what made them notice this. Something caught their eye or somebody told them what to look at because I can't imagine this was visible under the hood. If you'd like, PM me a picture or post it.
Sorry to hear about this. I personally think you have a bad a** car and I admire you for coming forward with it to NHRA class racing. Before you, it was Mazda rotaries.